Vladimir Bulatov

“Rhombic Dodecahedron I ”

Metal Sculpture, 4.5", 2008.



The base of this sculpture is rhombic dodecahedron (polyhedron with 12 rhombic faces with cubical symmetry). Each of 12 faces was transformed into curved shape with 4 twisted arms, which connects to other shapes at vertices of valence 3 and 4. The boundary of the resulting body forms quite a complex knot.

“Rhombic Triacontahedron III ”

Metal Sculpture, 4.0 ", 2007.



Stellation of rhombic triacontahedron with 30 identical rhombic faces makes base for this sculpture. All internal intersections of rhombic faces were carefully eliminated by cutting away parts of rhombuses. Resulting 3D body was given organic shape by replacing straight faces with smooth subdivided surface.



Vladimir Bulatov, Ph.D., Independent Artist, Corvallis, Oregon

" My artistic passions are purely mathematical images and sculptures, which express a certain vision of forms and shapes, my interpretations of distance, transformations and space. In my opinion, mathematics is not simply a profession, but rather a way of thinking, a way of life. My images and sculptures are like photographs of interesting mathematical ideas. I have always been intrigued by the possibility of showing the intrinsic richness of the mathematical world, whose charm and harmony can really be appreciated by everyone. The process of making my sculptures starts from mathematical idea. I build a computer model to represent this mathematical idea in 3D world. The model is saved in 3D file format as hundreds of thousands of tiny triangles representing surface of the object and sent to 3D printing device, which composes the piece from stainless steel powder and infiltrates it with molten bronze. Final sculptures are hand polished and burnished with steel shot."


info@bulatov.org
http://bulatov.org